Increase the chances of recovering your lost iPhone by enabling 'Send Last Location' in iOS 8

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There's a really useful Lookout feature (iOS/Android) that I think should be included on all smartphones: Lock Cam, which emails you a picture of anyone that incorrectly enters the lock screen combo three times.

There's been a few smartphone thefts making the news in my area where the owner received a pic of the thief and either recognized them or turned the images over to their local police for publishing and identification.

That's a really good idea... I'll roll this one with Tasker tonight. Might be cool to send it a text if I lose the phone to start snapping photos when the orientation is up and it's not static.

I basically never let my battery run out fully* so this setting is irrelevant UNTIL it gets stolen. So yes, I'll be using this feature!

It's also relevant for that one time your iPhone gets LOST and the battery runs out fully. You know, wedged in your friend's couch or something.

Saying "this setting is irrelevant because you never let your battery run out fully" is like saying "I don't need car insurance because I never get in car accidents." The whole point is that past performance is not an indication of future results. One day, something will happen that doesn't follow your typical pattern of things, and features like this (and car insurance) are there to try and help you.

A new and potentially crucial feature in iOS 8 allows an iPhone or iPad to send out its last-known location just before the device's battery dies, increasing the chances that a user might be able to recover their lost Apple product.

The new "Send Last Location" feature will automatically transmit an iOS device's last known location to Apple when the battery drains to a predetermined point. This saved information will provide owners with one more chance to find the missing device before it disappears from the grid.
It can be enabled by opening the Settings application in iOS 8, choosing iCloud, and then Find My iPhone. Turning on the new feature ensures that the location of the device will be sent to Apple and stored one last time when the battery becomes "critically low."
Find My iPhone, iPad and Mac is available to all users with an iCloud account. The location of the device can be accessed by using the official Find My iPhone application for iOS, or visiting iCloud.com.
Other capabilities of Find My iPhone allow a user to place their device in "Lost Mode," which will enable tracking of where a device has been in addition to its current location on a map.

Users can also immediately lock their lost device and send a message with a contact number, in hopes of retrieving it. Apple allows whoever has the lost iPhone to call the number displayed on the lock screen without accessing the rest of the device.
Apple also includes "Activation Lock" to prevent anyone from using a stolen iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. This requires an Apple ID and password to be entered before a person can turn off Find My iPhone, erase a device, or reactivate it.
Finally, Apple also gives users the ability to initiate a remote wipe of a lost iOS device. Doing this will delete personal data and restore an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or even a Mac to factory settings. A user's custom message can continue to be displayed on the device even after it has been remotely wiped.

The "Send Last Location" feature simply does not work:

1 - I does not send you anything at all - the name is misleading

2 - If you contact Apple, as I did when my phone was stolen, they just ignore you and send you to wrng email addresses, require you to be a law enforcement agency, or send you to irrelevant instructions pages, to state the obvious

I had my iPhone stolen two weeks ago, have spoken with several people at Apple, wasted my time on emails, and I still have no information with regard to where the "phone was last seen alive".

What Apple should do is to associate the IMEI with the Apple ID - that would be the only way of building a robust framework to prevent stolen iPhones to be used,

2 - If you contact Apple, as I did when my phone was stolen, they just ignore you and send you to wrng email addresses, require you to be a law enforcement agency, or send you to irrelevant instructions pages, to state the obvious

I had my iPhone stolen two weeks ago, have spoken with several people at Apple, wasted my time on emails, and I still have no information with regard to where the "phone was last seen alive".

What Apple should do is to associate the IMEI with the Apple ID - that would be the only way of building a robust framework to prevent stolen iPhones to be used,